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He would certainly be an upgrade over Geathers in a box safety role but I wonder if Ballard will look for more of a 2-High safety fit. Collins in coverage has not been stellar but he can bring it in the box.

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Id make a huge push for him, he would help he transformation of our defense and makes one less position of need for awhile

Exactly dude is a perfect safety for us hes not perfect in coverage but he has coverage skills and is a good in the box safety too!

1 minute ago, Boiler_Colt said:

He would certainly be an upgrade over Geathers in a box safety role but I wonder if Ballard will look for more of a 2-High safety fit. Collins in coverage has not been stellar but he can bring it in the box.

Well he put geathers to shame in the coverage department so if collins is bad geathers is useless

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josinaanderson is very well connected. I would expect she has confirmed this or it wouldn't be out there. We could make him the highest paid safety and I would be all in. I would expect him to be high on Ballards list of potential targets.

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Yes to Collins. And to drafting another safety as well. It is a key position for this Defense, and that position is shaky right now. Geathers' health can no longer counted upon, and Hooker has been banged up alot as well. Collins upgrades the position, without question.

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Safeties don't typically command top dollar, so something along the lines of 4 years, 30 mil should get it done.

I would love pairing him with Hooker though unless Ballard thinks Geathers is the answer longterm and can stay healthy.

I like Ballard but if he thinks Geathers is the long term solution, I would seriously question his judgement. Geathers cannot stay healthy. Maybe sign him for depth but u cannot go into next season with idea of him being your starting SS.

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I don't think he would have cleaned out his locker, said his goodbyes, and made the tweet without knowing the Giants were not going to tag him. I think he was told and now he is waiting for FA to begin. Great opportunity for the Colts.

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Yes to Collins. And to drafting another safety as well. It is a key position for this Defense, and that position is shaky right now. Geathers' health can no longer counted upon, and Hooker has been banged up alot as well. Collins upgrades the position, without question.

I'm with you. Tender Farley, sign Collins and draft a jack-of-all trades guy like Chauncey Gardener-Johnson who can line up anywhere and you've got a very versatile secondary for years to come.

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If he is available, I would put this near the top of the list of probabilities - a generally healthy, much better version of Geathers - and it shouldn't take astronomical money like some of the other players we're discussing.

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Wouldn't be upset with Collins, but if were going hard-hitting safety with injury concerns may as well swing for the fences as land a guy with great coverage skills, that can also lay the wood, in Earl Thomas. The guy I really like is Tyrann Mathieu, and he's most likely cheaper than either of them. He seems to have shaken the injury thing, and is really young still.

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After a brilliant start to his career, numbers are down mostly due to his hard-hitting style resulting in injury. Sound familiar to anyone?

That being said, we all know how the safety position is being undervalued, plus Collins IS a good fit in a position of need. I would guess that yes, he would become high on Ballard's list as a relative value add at 4/45.

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I wouldn't mind us investing in Collins, but I still think reporters, fans, etc are jumping the gun assuming he is going to hit free agency.

Collins can clear out his locker all he wants and say his goodbyes. The Giants can still go in and tag him (as they damn well should for only $11M).

That makes it so that only they can work out a deal with him or else he can play a year for $11M or he can sit a year like Bell.

Collins has zero leverage here other than the threat of pulling a Bell situation. He has threatened to sit out spring and summer but has made no threat to sit out paid games. If I were the Giants I would call his bluff.

With the Safety position having it's value down, $11M as a franchise tag is dirt cheap.

Also, as a result of that, it is possible that a deal of 4 years and $45M as our fans floated would arguably be overpaying him. That is giving him the value of the 2019 franchise tag for 4 years running.

The only guys in the league making an annual salary over that $11M mark are Eric Berry, Kam Chancellor and Reshad Jones.

With the injuries and their performance, none of those three guys are worth their price. Chancellor really doesn't count since he isn't going to play again. Berry could easily be let go to save around $5.5M this season and around $30M over the remainder of his potential contract.

All I am getting at is that paying a guy anything north of $7M a year makes him a top-10 guy and anything north of $9M makes them a top-5 guy.

So if I were throwing money at Collins I would likely be in the range of 4 years and $36M-$38M.

Tony Jefferson is the closest comparison I could remember in terms of a player coming on the market when playing well and still being very young. He was 25 when the Ravens gave him 4 years and $34M.

All the other guys like D.McCourty, M.Jenkins, K.Jackson, H.Smith got their deals when a bit older (27-28 yrs old or so).

I would love to see us chase Collins but I question dropping $11M a year on him and I truthfully think the Giants slap a tag on him anyhow.

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I would love to see us chase Collins but I question dropping $11M a year on him and I truthfully think the Giants slap a tag on him anyhow.

The tag would be ~$12m. You just made a pretty strong argument for not paying him more than $9.5m/year, IMO. I think that explains why they apparently don't intend to tag him. And I don't blame them. Maybe I'd go transition tag if I were them, but that's still around $10m, and it never seems to work out well.

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The thing I find interesting about Collins, is that it's not clear to me if he's a Free Safety or a Strong Safety. And w﻿hich ﻿does ﻿﻿he﻿﻿﻿﻿﻿prefer?﻿

Everyone here assumes we'd sign him to replace Geathers. But if he sees himself as more of a Free Safety, then that spot is taken with Hooker.

I'm somewhat skeptical why the Giants wouldn't try to keep him with at least a tag of some type.

Letting him walk away is a possible red flag to me....

IMO he's obviously better closer to the box(i.e. strong safety) and he took off when he got moved to strong safety in his second year. He was strong safety in college too, if I remember correctly. He's the perfect complement to Hooker. Collins probably can play some free safety, but he is definitely better closer to the LOS. Just my 2 cent.

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IMO he's obviously better closer to the box(i.e. strong safety) and he took off when he got moved to strong safety in his second year. He was strong safety in college too. He's the perfect complement to Hooker. Collins probably can play some free safety, but he is definitely better closer to the LOS. Just my 2 cent.

Hey, if we have interest (and I have no idea if we do) then I absolutely hope you're right.

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Hey, if we have interest (and I have no idea if we do) then I ﻿absolutely﻿﻿ hope you're right.

But this will be Collins' payday contra﻿ct﻿. He is lo﻿﻿﻿oking to get PAID.

I confess to being curious how much Ballard would be willing to go?

Yeah. No idea. Even though we've had capspace before, we haven't seen Ballard in situation quite like this in several respects - first we are on the edge of being a true contender, second he has healthy (and impressive) Luck (it seems like big part of us not being able to attract high end FAs last year was them asking about Luck and him not being able to guarantee anything).

I still think Ballard will be measured and restrained in how he spends the money, but I think there is more of a chance that he goes for one or two high end talents.

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I've always wished the Colt had drafted this guy, instead of that WR who plays for NE now. What was his name? If only he wasn't so forgettable, maybe I'd remember him. You know, that guy, who did nothing?

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At this point, most high end FAs with big salary demands seem to be angling at our capspace. It's kind of hilarious in a way, but oh well... I thought it was at least interesting to post.

On the article... I think at this point most of what Colts media is putting out is pure conjecture and nothing concrete as sourced information. It's almost entirely "I think the Colts SHOULD pursue him" rather than information about actual interest.

I know this article is kinda vague, but I do sincerely hope we have interest in Collins, who when paired with Hooker could make the best safety duo in the league.

The only reason I wouldnt be in favor of signing him were if Ballard truly believed Geathers is the guy long term next to Hooker and that he can stay healthy.

That's the $64,000 question. Can Gaethers stay healthy? I actually thought he wasn't going to come back from his serious injury. I was surprised when he did but if I'm Ballard I'm signing Collins. Just to much risk for me on Gaethers.

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An interesting concept: We go out and sign Landon Collins. Then, we draft Gerald Willis III in the second round. They're brothers, and though Willis has had off-field issues in the past, being paired on a team with his brother might be just what he needs. That would give us a top 5 safety room and Willis reminds me of Sheldon Richardson, and could become our starting 3 tech, leaving us with our first round pick to go after either an Edge or a WR, and then the opposite with our other 2nd.

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I saw a bunch of articles pop up yesterday about "Colts to pursue Collins" but what they really were were a bunch of tweets from local Indy media speculating Indy might have interest or hoping they would have interest.

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I think his body type is confusing people, because he looks more like a RB than a WR and they have hard time projecting him because of it. Try to ignore his bulk for a moment. Think of him as an averagely sized WR for his height. Imagine he's 195lbs instead of 215... Imagine the same quickness, same route running, same ability to break tackles and gain yards after catch from the slot and same game breaking long-catch game. What do you see? Now add 20 pounds on top WITHOUT subtracting anything for it. Don't punish him for having a weird body type. He does what he does well with this body type. I don't think it's hindering him in any specific way. If anything it's probably helping him break tackles. He's not particularly shifty but that's not something out of the ordinary for most receivers. Not everybody is Parris Campbell. At least he has his bulk and explosiveness to gain YAC in different way than just making people miss by shiftiness.

but you also said he was rated higher in 2017 than 2018????
having a career year in 2018, but rated higher in 2017 is not computing with my old brain.
and wasn't AC out in the beginning of the season?? not sure that you would expect a line with an injured starter, plus two new guys to play well regardless. and smith wasn't even starting until like week 5 or 6, and that was at RG. Then moved to RT around week 8 or 9. the OL was a work in progress the first half of the season. not sure you can say AC was thing that made them good all of sudden. kelly was banged up early too.